Skip to main content

Plans submitted for UK’s Luton Airport Gateway

Knight Architects and Arup have submitted plans for Luton Airport Gateway; a new bridge which will form part of the US$244 million (£200 million) mass passenger transit (MPT) system linking London Luton Airport with Luton Parkway railway station. The MPT will enable fast, easy access from central London to the UK’s fifth biggest and fastest-growing major airport in 30 minutes by providing a seamless transfer time of just five minutes from Luton Airport Parkway to the airport terminal. The system will be a f
March 7, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Knight Architects and 7942 Arup have submitted plans for Luton Airport Gateway; a new bridge which will form part of the US$244 million (£200 million) mass passenger transit (MPT) system linking London Luton Airport with Luton Parkway railway station.

The MPT will enable fast, easy access from central London to the UK’s fifth biggest and fastest-growing major airport in 30 minutes by providing a seamless transfer time of just five minutes from Luton Airport Parkway to the airport terminal. The system will be a fully-automated, two-way, 24-hour capable people-mover based on latest system technology and design innovation running alongside the mainline railway before crossing over Airport Way via the new landmark bridge.

The London Luton Gateway Bridge has been designed as an asymmetric truss structure, spanning 72m across the busy Airport Way. Its top chord traces a parabola which springs tangentially from the deck, before tapering to a slender profile which appears to fade into the distance.

At night the top chord is illuminated with an active-led system. attached directly to the structure and aimed downwards. This allows the lighting system safely operate in its airport environment, without interfering with the functional lighting behind.

Subject to planning permission, work could begin in late 2017, with the system ready for operation by spring 2021.

Related Content

  • June 13, 2018
    Singapore plans changes to transit system
    Singapore has the third-highest population density in the world and the numbers are continuing to grow. The government knows that transit is vital: David Crawford investigates the city state’s Smart Nation strategy. Transport is the most important of the five domains identified as the pillars of Singapore's far-reaching Smart Nation strategy, launched in November 2014 by prime minister Lee Hsien Loong with the aim of reaching fulfilment by 2024. Roads account for 12% of the island republic's 719km2 land ar
  • March 20, 2014
    Adaptive cruise control would suppress traffic instability
    Professor Berthold Horn of Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes a modified adaptive cruise control could mitigate phantom traffic jamsthat occur for no apparent reason. The phenomenon of the phantom traffic jam is all too common: they appear for no apparent reason and, having caused frustrating delays for all travelers, evaporate for an equally mystical reason. Phantom traffic jams usually occur on busy highways and often take the form of repeatedly stopping and then accelerating up to near the
  • April 28, 2016
    Fluor-led team selected for South Carolina port access road project
    Fluor Corporation’s joint venture team, Fluor-Lane South Carolina, comprising Fluor and The Lane Construction Corporation, has been selected by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) to design and build the Port Access Road Project in Charleston. The Port of Charleston is currently the fastest growing major container port in the US and the new roadway and structure project will provide direct access between the proposed marine container terminal located on the former Naval Base and Intersta
  • June 28, 2017
    Autonomous grocery delivery trials in Greenwich
    The TRL-led GATEway Project, together with Ocado Technology (a division of Ocado, the online-only supermarket) is running the UK’s first trials of an autonomous vehicle around the Berkeley Homes, Royal Arsenal Riverside development in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London.